the flames in her eyes
by JasonGraceless
Summary: Reyna might find who she's looking for in the boy on fire.
1. Peace Offering

**A/N: Shoutout to green angel01 and her story Thanks to Nightingale! Thanks for doing my request!**

* * *

Reyna popped a jelly bean into her mouth and lifted her feet onto her cluttered desk. "Fetch, Aurum, Argentum!"

She tossed two in either direction, and the metallic dogs snapped their heads up and swallowed the tiny treats.

There was a knock on the door.

Reyna hastily lifted her feet off her desk, took her hand out of her bowl of jelly beans, and picked up a pen and a scroll and pretended to be writing something.

"Come in."

The door creaked open. She didn't bother to turn as whoever it was made their way around her desk and sat in the chair opposite to it.

It was Jason. Reyna raised her eyebrows. "I didn't know you were here today."

He hesitated. "I wasn't planning to… but I'm here to give a peace offering for Leo."

"Leo?"

"You know… Leo Valdez… The boy who—"

"Bombed our camp. Broke our previous peace treaty. Yes. I remember now." Reyna felt angry.

"No, I swear! It's not what you think! Can we vote in front of the Senate? Please? It wasn't his fault, these eido-"

"Fine," Reyna said coldly. "But you are taking a risk in bringing him here. We will hold a trial. If he proves himself, all charges will be cleared and he will be given a medal of valor for helping defeat Gaea, as well as the rest of your crew. And if he is voted guilty, he will be executed. And, if we are to follow the rules, so will anyone who supports him."

Jason gulped. "Um… okay. I promise, he's innocent."

Reyna stood up, and so did Jason. They shook hands.

"Please inform him that his trial will be held tomorrow at 5 PM in the court. Bring witnesses. I will make an announcement tonight at dinner."

"Thank you," Jason said, obviously relieved.

Reyna nodded coldly and sat down as Jason walked out the door.

* * *

**A/N: Next chapter coming soon! Please review!**


	2. The Trial

It was the time of the trial. Leo Valdez stood nervously up on the podium beside Reyna and Frank, the praetors. He fidgeted with his tool belt, trying to ignore the fact that Reyna was two inches taller than him, and trying not to think about how shiny her hair was. Leo liked shiny things. He looked at her braid. It fell below her waist, and it even looked better than the braided bronze wires in his Archidemes sphere. He wondered if it was possible to make wires as thin as a single strand of hair. It would make everything so much more compac— no. Leo had to focus on his trial. Otherwise, he and his friends were dead meat. He pocketed his thought and stood there awkwardly, half listening to what Reyna was saying, and half thinking about how the sunlight coming in from the windows caught her hair.

"…best judgement…" she was saying. "…helped defeat Gaea, so… in mind… avoid painful execution."

Leo gulped. Frank shifted uncomfortably. He fingered his badge.

His other friends, besides were sitting in chairs next to the podium. Jason and Piper looked anxious. Hazel looked a little worried. She was communicating with Franks using glances. Percy and Annabeth had pushed their chairs right next to each other. They were the only ones who looked confident and relaxed. Percy had his arm around Annabeth, who was whispering to him, and his fingers were running though her hair.

Leo wondered how they looked so happy. He wondered what it would feel like to run his fingers through someone else's hair. Specifically Reyna's. He shook his head a little to clear it. He barely knew the girl. Although that had never stopped him in the past.

"Name," he heard Reyna say. He ignored this. "YOUR NAME," Reyna snapped.

He jumped. "Oh! You're talking to me?"

He heard Annabeth and Jason sigh.

Reyna glared at him. Ahh, tough girl deluxe. _Le gusta._

Leo grinned crazily. "Leo! Leo Valdez! You may also refer to me as Supreme Commander of the Argo II, Uncle Leo, Blue Bottom, Black Bottom the Sequel, Admiral, Repair Boy, Mr. Spock, Super Sized McShizzle, Bad Boy Supreme—"

"—or I can refer to you as _shut your mouth_. Godly parent?"

_Hell yes, I'd be a godly parent! Are you offering?_ Leo thought. But he settled with smiling at her hopefully and answering "Hephaestus."

"Now, Super Sized McShizzle," Reyna said sarcastically. (Leo grinned wider) "What in the name of Hephaestus is your excuse for bombing New Rome after arriving on truce?"

Leo tugged at his tool belt, wishing he could pull something out that would convince everyone into letting him go. He wished he was born with charmspeak like Piper could instead of being blessed with fumbling words and fumbling fingers.

"It wasn't me, well it was, but it wasn't, I mean, well, it was Leo, but it wasn't the actual Super Sized McShizzle. These possessing-ghost-thingies, eidolons, got into my head and messed things up. I don't remember what happened. They got into my brain and then they probably thought, "Hey! It would be fun to start a war!" and they made me fire the ballistae. The end."

Leo took a bow.

"I'm not sure about the eidolons, but something in there is messed up," Reyna said dryly. "Anyhow, who will testimony for him?"

Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel, Percy, Annabeth, and Coach Hedge, who was way in the back, swinging his bat, raised their hands.

"Very well, Leo Valdez. We have heard from you and you received support. Now, it is up to me, Frank, and the senators to decide. You will hear from us within forty-eight hours. Until then, you will be assigned a barrack and will be under house arrest there. Your friends may stay with you. Now, everyone, leave."

Everyone besides Reyna, Frank, and the senators stood up and began filiing out. His friends clapped him on the back and began to encourage him.

"You know, that wasn't too bad—"

"Leo, that was hilarious, man—"

"PERCY!"

"You got this, Blue Bottom!"

Leo was followed out by his friends and a guard, but as he walked out the door, he couldn't help but peek back once, staring again at Reyna's braid.

* * *

**A/N: How was it? Sorry, that ending was sucky... I just finished writing it and I'm super tired... Anyway, please review! They're my incentive to continue!**

**Next chapter, you find out Leo's fate (ooooooh)**

**Good night!**


	3. Bad Friends and Doofuses

**A/N: This chapter has really mild profanity in it. I'm just warning you in case you're one of those people who go "BEEP BEEP SWEARING ALERT BEEP BEEP" at the simplest of things, so, I have no idea who you are, but if you're one of those people, don't read. LOLLL**

**Also, someone asked me this, so I just thought I'd tell everyone: CALYPSO DOES NOT EXIST IN THIS FIC, BECAUSE IT'S GOING TO HAVE LEYNA IN IT, AND I DON'T WANT LEO TO BE KIND OF CHEATING ON CALYPSO. LEO HASN'T MET HER YET AND WILL NEVER MEET HER IN THIS FIC.**

**Sorry for the long wait and the cliffhanger D: I've been really busy**

* * *

As the Romans filed out and the Greeks moved messily along after them, Reyna turned her back on Frank and paced the podium until it was completely empty apart from her and the Senate. She thought while she paced.

To be honest, that boy hadn't been too bad. He had been annoying and mundane and irritatingly self-centered, but she had to admit that he had sparked her interest. Maybe Super-Sized McSchizzle wasn't super-sized or shizzling hot like Percy or maybe Jason, but… he had been funny. And kind of cute. Reyna shook her head. _No_, she thought sternly. _You don't like him. He's a traitor._

She didn't know where those thoughts of him being funny and cute had come from. Maybe eidolons had possessed her, too. At least she could sympathize with him now.

"Okay, Senate, let's begin," Frank said, and Reyna jolted back to reality.

She opened her mouth to begin speaking, but then Octavian cleared his throat loudly and deliberately. "Praetors, if I may," he began.

Reyna and Frank gritted their teeth as he continued.

"No matter what foolish excuse this boy has presented, keep in mind that he _did_ still fire on New Rome."

_I _am_ keeping it in mind, you dumbass, _Reyna thought. _That's the whole point of this meeting._

She looked over at Frank. His hands were clenched, and he looked so angry that Reyna was sure that pretty soon, he would burst, and he would attack Octavian while spewing colorful profanity like 'bad friend', 'doofus', and 'stupid idiot'. She could see why he was perfect for someone like Hazel. She smiled a little at the thought, but it abruptly faded when she surfaced from her thoughts and realized that Octavian was still talking.

"—and the rest of them are guilty as well, including our praetor, which means we are being ruled by a traitor and—"

"SHUT UP, BIT—" Reyna began to shout and abruptly stopped when she saw Frank, and the Senate's horrified expression. "BIT-BI-B-BAD FRIEND," she said hurriedly. "BAD FRIEND."

She cursed in her head. She had made herself look unstable. Octavian smirked.

"Um, that's enough, Octavian," Frank said, nervously shooting a glance at Reyna, who was raking her hands through her hair (which had come loose from its neat braid) and was breathing heavily.

The rest of the Senate spoke several times, but Reyna barely heard them. She was too angry to listen, or even speak. She simply stood there at the podium, trying to calm down while thinking of a million other names she could call Octavian, including one that's first syllable kind of sounded like "doofus".

It was not effective in helping her calm down.

She only resurfaced again when Frank began to speak. "So, the vote is exactly 50/50. Now it's up to me and Reyna to decide. If we choose opposites, then the tie needs to be broken by a god or goddess before we seal Leo's fate."

"It will be Octavian's job to summon this god or goddess," Reyna said stiffly, speaking for the first time in what had been nearly an hour.

Frank swallowed. "I- I vote not guilty. I've seen the eidolons and seen people be possessed by them. It wasn't Leo's fault. So, um, Reyna, what do you vote?"

Reyna was torn. She really didn't want to do anything that would please Octavian right now, and she actually kind of liked Leo. On the other hand, well… none of that had been his fault, had it? And he had helped save the world. And she didn't really want the Seven, including her fellow praetor, to be executed.

She found herself saying "Not guilty" before she had even thought about it. She thought had known she would choose it all along.

* * *

**A/N: Yay! Leo's innocent! :'D Next chapter soon, I promise.**

**Lol so what did you think? If you're reading this please please please please please review. They make me smile. I don't mind flames. Leo's immune to them ;)**

**YAY! NINE DAYS UNTIL I CAN BECOME A BETAREADER! As a lame celebration, on June 2nd, I'll post an update to ALL of my incomplete fics. Yay! No procrastination! (For one day...) And I'm working on a new fic... I'm trying to get the first chapter done by then, too.**


End file.
